Yungblud, Weird
Polydor Records

Yungblud plays by absolutely no one’s rules – if he’s been hailed as a riot of punk carefreeness, careening around stages in front of massive mosh-pits, smearing his face with black makeup to match the black dresses he wears, he’ll stick his middle finger up at the world and make an electro-pop song. Weird is YUNGBLUD’s answer to your 2000s alt-electronica filled daydreams, complete with floaty, vaporwave aesthetics for the new era; he truly does just do what he wants, and we absolutely let him.

The instrumentation is LCD Soundsystem smashed up against Charli XCX with a healthy helping of The 1975 in the chorus. Never did we think such a combination would flow out of a Yungblud song, but altogether it creates something quite special – the song positively glitters, throwing video-game laser-beams of brightness out of the speakers. It’s unshakably positive in sound, beeping with 8-bit optimism, and it’s a backdrop that’s beyond fitting for Yungblud’s lyrical message.

He’s raged and ranted on his relentless debut album, he’s battered down the door to hope on EP The Underrated Youth, and Weird is stomping through the quaking doorframe to the most cheerful outlook a Yungblud song’s ever had. He accepts the mess that life can be, acknowledges that “we’re in a weird time of life”, and concludes that “it’ll be alright”. The words are so simple, and yet they seem like a revelation – a sentiment that anyone who’s made it out the other side of a hard patch can relate to. Weird is deeply empowering in its openness to the slings and arrows that we know will keep getting launched towards us – we just know we’re able to deal with it.

Yungblud’s come through with Weird at just the right time – our situation couldn’t be stranger, but we’re allowed to struggle! We don’t have to beat ourselves up for it – we’ve got a synth-pop banger to lift ourselves up, and our favourite unapologetic whirlwind to hold our hand.

Weird is out now.